About halfway through the first season of True Detective it should've become obvious that Nic Pizzolatto was royally screwed. He and Cary Fukunaga had already written and shot his entire series of eight episodes which meant that he couldn't make changes to it even if he wanted ...read more
Back in 2012, I interviewed Jake Caputo, a web designer who had a novel idea for how to convince HBO to launch a standalone subscription service that didn’t require a cable package. Instead of simply voicing his wishes, he created a website called TakeMyMoneyHBO.com. It provided ...read more
Is it easier or harder to write about a subject when you don't like anyone involved in it, when you believe that just about everybody on every side of a controversy is at best operating in bad faith or at worst is being utterly insufferable? Think about that as we dig into the ...read more
"This Is a Call To All My Past Resignations" When I was five-years-old my dad bought me a drum set. It was a four-piece Slingerland Radio Kings kit with a midnight satin flame finish that came with a full complement of Zildjian cymbals, which my father proudly informed me were ...read more
Aside from the immortality and the babes, there are a great many things about being a vampire that suck. If you thought it was a pain in the balls not being able to see your reflection in a mirror, though, or having to sub in shallots for garlic in every recipe, then you ain't ...read more
Right now, HBO is using a show called The Leftovers to fill the hole in our hearts where Game of Thrones should be, and while it remains to be seen how successful it will be at that particular mission, the show's premise raises the question (spoiler alert): How would the ...read more
Dare to enter the True Detective Subreddit and what you'll find is a bottomless rabbit hole of insanity and obsession. If even a few of the multi-layered theories and tenuous connections atop tenuous connections proposed by readers are true, then show creator Nic Pizzolatto ...read more
My obsession with HBO's True Detective is well-documented. I think it's groundbreaking television: intelligent, layered, beautifully acted, and utterly menacing -- a pitch black-hearted piece of American gothic that you can feel in your bones. For the first three episodes, the ...read more
"If somewhere in the Bible I were to find a passage that says two plus two equals five, I wouldn’t question what I’m reading in the Bible. I would believe it—accept it as true and then do my best to work it out and to understand it." -- The words of a creationist pastor, from ...read more
Welcome back to Monday. Hope you've recovered from yesterday's beer-fest and are ready for the new work week. Lord knows some of us aren't. Here are a couple of morning headlines and goodies from around the internet. 1. Ball Busters So, a real shocker in yesterday's Super Bowl. ...read more
Photo: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images Happy MLK day. Hopefully you're reading this from the comfort of your home, because by all accounts you should have the day off today. Regardless, here are some headlines and assorted internet nonsense to kill some time. 1. Bad to Worse The ...read more
It's Monday and so it's back to the grind with you, gerbils. Here's a couple of headlines and some assorted stuff from around the internet to get you through the day. 1. Gold Rush 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle cleaned up at last night's Golden Globes, while on the TV ...read more
You know the drill: If you haven't yet seen last night's episode of The Newsroom and plan to, don't bother reading any further. Spoilers abound. There's a reason that while I can say that I watch The Newsroom regularly I've always had to temper it with the seemingly ...read more
You know the drill: spoilers are ahead so don't read if you haven't yet seen last night's episode of The Newsroom, entitled "Red Team III," and plan to at some point. Finally, the episode of The Newsroom I've been waiting for, one that comes very close to reminding us all ...read more
Once again I realize this is coming probably a day later than it should, but between the various projects I have weighing down my desk and the constant care of my little kid this is how it is for the next couple of weeks. Like last time around, I'm just going to give myself ...read more
I realize this is coming in a little late this week, mostly because I had an incredibly difficult family funeral to attend over the weekend and needed to take the day yesterday to just spend some time with my young daughter. But I guess I can chalk the delay up to posting the ...read more
A couple of quick thoughts about last night's episode of The Newsroom from a news production perspective (obviously spoilers abound and none of this will make any sense if you haven't yet seen the episode, entitled "Unintended Consequences"): First off, overall it seems like ...read more
There are a lot of things HBO's The Newsroom gets right about national TV news production. It's rare that one show does all of its own research and general digging for facts, as the fictional "Newsnight" seems to do, since you have to keep in mind that you've got the ...read more
*There Will Be Spoilers* I've mentioned this once before but right now it seems especially appropriate: My mother has a thing where she refuses to watch movies and TV shows that are excessively violent. No matter how fantastic a movie or show is -- how well it's reviewed, how ...read more
For those of you who haven't thought all this time that Lena Dunham's Girls is itself a porn parody, along comes the inevitable real -- though not exactly "official" -- porn parody of the HBO show. Last week, Hustler announced that it's in the process of shooting an erotified ...read more
Here's a little something I don't think I've ever actually told anyone: Andrew Breitbart wrote to me not once but twice. Back in February of 2010 he rattled off a very strange late-night rant at me in response to something I'd written about his little Renfield, James O'Keefe. ...read more
When I first started my site, Deus Ex Malcontent, back in the spring of 2006, the original personal bio on its front page had a line in it that slammed Sarah Jessica Parker. I can't remember the exact words right now but I basically said something about how I didn't like ...read more
By Chez Pazienza: (Glenn Greenwald Honorary Update Below) Well, it was nice while it lasted. I was allowed all of about 24-hours of magnanimity and good will toward CNN before something happened to kind of blow it all to hell. You'll remember that when we last left your humble ...read more
By Chez Pazienza: A while back, I wrote a column for this site that pondered whether Aaron Sorkin's HBO series The Newsroom had the potential to actually change TV news for the better. While certainly not perfect, or occasionally even all that great, the show presents a ...read more
By Chez Pazienza: It's one of those thing I haven't wanted to admit to myself but which I know has been bubbling just below the surface of my consciousness for quite a while. I just finished watching this week's episode of HBO's The Newsroom and for the record it was the ...read more
By Chez Pazienza: A few weeks back I banged out a column for this site that took issue with what I called the misguided, "pipe-dreamy idealism" of Aaron Sorkin's new HBO show, The Newsroom. After watching only the season premiere I didn't necessarily claim to know whether the ...read more
By Chez Pazienza: Let's start with the obvious: HBO's new series Girls isn't for me. What I mean by that is that I'm not its target audience. I'm not a millennial; I'm not female; I'm not a Brooklyn hipster who's perpetually drowning in his or her own insufferable ennui; I don't ...read more
By Ben Cohen: The HBO movie detailing the rise and fall of Sarah Palin, 'Game Change', should be required watching for anyone with a passing interest in politics. The script was apparently vetted extremely thoroughly and is very accurate. Knowing that, it should strike the fear ...read more
Apparently HBO is removing all those video excerpts of yesterday's concert at the Lincoln Memorial. I'm no copyright expert, but I really wish someone would go ahead and post clips on their blog or other website, then get HBO to defend the idea that they own a public concert ...read more
